266 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



will be to reduce somewhat the number of work animals kept on 

 farms, or to check their increase somewhat, leaving a larger pro- 

 portion of the produce of the farms to be turned into money, 

 since a smaller proportion will be used in providing power, 

 that is, in horse feed. 



Live stock. It is safe to say that there is no such thing as 

 good farming without live stock, except in the neighborhood of 

 large cities from which abundant supplies of manure can be 

 carted, or where it is found profitable to buy large quantities 

 of chemical fertilizers, to be used in the production of high- 

 priced agricultural specialties. The relation between live stock 

 and good agriculture is partly cause and partly effect. Live 

 stock is a cause of good agriculture in the sense that it is good 

 for the land and good for the farmer ; it is an effect of good 

 agriculture in the sense that good farming is necessary before 

 the live-stock industry can reach its highest development. 



The benefit which the land receives from live stock may be 

 due in part to factors not well understood, such as the tramping 

 of the soil by the animals' feet ; but it is not necessary to give 

 such doubtful reasons when there are at least two that are unques- 

 tioned. In the first place, the consumption on the farm of some 

 of its vegetable products and the removal from it of only the 

 refined products, or products combining great value with little 

 weight, such as butter, cheese, wool, eggs, and meat, removes 

 comparatively little fertility from the soil ; that is to say, the 

 greater part of the value, for fertilizing purposes, of the food con- 

 sumed by live stock is left on the land in the form of manure. 

 In the second place, live stock, particularly sheep and goats, have 

 a liking for many of the noxious weeds, grasses, and shrubs with 

 which the farmer has to fight incessantly, and they prove effective 

 allies of his in his efforts to keep them down ; that is, they help 

 to " keep the farm clean." Even poultry plays its humble part 

 in this work, and wages war not only on weeds but on insects 



